Jak and Daxter: The Uncharted World
by marneus90
Summary: When Jak, Daxter and co. find themselves in the Rift Rider again, they have no idea where they'll turn up. It takes them to the last place they'd expect: another Naughty Dog franchise! Includes humour, drama, adventure and more.
1. Impact

**A/N - And here we are, another Jak and Daxter fanfic with an extra addition: it's a crossover with the Uncharted universe! Expect a bit of action and adventure, dashed with humour, a little tension and maybe even some drama too!**

**I'm getting these written as quickly as possible (at time of writing I have 3 chapters done and dusted) but I straight-up refuse to upload any more until I get decent-length reviews. If you already do this then you have no problem, but those of you who write one or two sentances... it'll be your fault when I stop uploading. Just saying. So make them a decent paragraph please. I put a lot of effort into these stories and I'd like to see the appreciation you have for them.**

**Anyway, enough babbling from me. Enjoy the story :) And don't forget to review!**

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1. Impact

Jak Mar, legendary warrior, expert marksman, fuelled by both Light and Dark eco was, not for the first time in his life, forced into the seat of a Rift Rider. Prior to his younger self's departure, Keira had made a copy of the designs for the Rift Rider and, over the years of peace in Haven City, built another incarnation of the machine.

Haven City had faced a minor crisis after the fall of Baron Praxis. With Count Veger killed by the Metal Heads that broke through the city wall, taking his place was Ashelin, who fought all opposition with a fire and tenacity that nobody had expected to see. Cleansing the city of Metal Heads, she gave the remaining Krimzon Guard the option to either join the Freedom League or die. She'd also single-handedly stopped the council from banishing Jak to the Wasteland.

In a public address only 18 months after her ascension to power, she announced that she would be stepping down, effective immediately. Replacing her would be the one that the tyrannical Baron had overthrown so many years ago. Damas returned to the city triumphantly, with parades and citizens lining the streets to glimpse him. He gracefully took up the twin thrones of Haven and Spargus, And named Jak as his heir, allowing him to take his father's place when the time came.

At the moment though, he wanted nothing more than to be seated anywhere but in the replica Rift Rider. _Precursors,_ He thought to himself. _Even if I were strapped into a combat racing car, I'd be a lot happier!_ The old Green Sage complained to his left while a trouser-wearing ottsel made similar noises of discontentment to his right. With a rumble, Keira started the vehicle up and activated the rift ring before jumping in next to Jak, almost squashing Daxter in the process.

"I still can't believe we're doing this again," Daxter said grumpily.

"Come on Dax, it'll be an adventure," his lifelong friend replied.

"Oh, like I haven't had enough of those already!"

"Can we go, please? Preferably before I lose my will to stay in this infernal contraption," Samos shouted over the combined noise of both the Rider and the portal.

Jak nodded and slammed a gloved hand down onto the big red button without another word, sending the Rift Rider flying through the gate.

~^v^~

"I'm telling ya, Nate," breathed Victor "Sully" Sullivan. "There's _nothing_ here!"

"And I'm telling YOU, Sully, I've got a good feeling about this place," Drake called back to the old man. "C'mon, have a little faith."

Nathan Drake stared up at the massive round door in front of him. It appeared to have roughly a hundred small round lumps around it arranged in concentric circles, though one or two of the lower ones had been prised loose and lay on the floor. Drake picked one up and slotted it into the waiting gap, where it lodged itself perfectly, taking its place once more as if it had never left. Evidently happy with this, he replaced the other two spheres with equal satisfaction. He stood in front of the door, admiring his handiwork.

"So, what now?" Asked the voice of his female companion, Elena Fisher.

"I… have absolutely no idea," he replied.

"Figures," she muttered dryly.

Without a warning, the door shuddered, swinging open at a surprising speed for something of its size and age.

"Did you do that, Nate?" Elena shouted of the noise the door was making.

"I don't know. Would I be more attractive if I did?"

"You don't think this might be a good opportunity to run?" The old man shouted, taking the cigar from his mouth and hastily stubbing it out on a nearby statue.

"Right, good plan Sully!"

All three of them turned on their heels and started to run. They'd not gotten even halfway across the open area when the rumbling and shaking abruptly stopped. Drake turned back, cautiously.

"Nate?"

"Hold on a sec," he almost whispered.

"Oh, I hate it when he does that," the woman muttered to Sullivan.

"You and me both, kid."

They'd been in such a hurry to leave that they hadn't seen what was behind the door. As the dust finally cleared, the gate's secret was revealed.

A blank, orange, metallic wall.

"I hate to say I told you so, Nate,"

"No you don't, Sully. You love it. I still have that feeling though…"

As if taking Drake's words as a cue, the wall began to change at the centre; a dark blob expanding outwards rapidly. The warping obtained colour and form, the orange metal turning into a blue portal, swirling around ferociously. White and purple lightning crackled around the edges so brightly that they had to shield their eyes.

"What the hell…?" The fortune hunter squinted into the apparent wormhole as a dark shape manifested in the centre of the vortex, growing larger by the second.

~^v^~

The Rift Rider sped through the void between times, worlds, universes, all passing in the blink of an eye. Jak convulsed violently, changing between his Dark, Light and normal forms just as rapidly, causing coloured lightning to strike the Rider. The effects were not as terrible as their first Rift journey though, but all occupants still held on as if they were going to be thrown out in the same way.

"Hold on, everyone," Keira shouted. "We're going through!"

~^v^~

"Get down!" Nathan shouted, diving to the left and pushing Elena down with him, leaving Sully to mirror his actions alone.

The shape burst through the membrane of the vortex into the world, hitting the stone floor and skidding over where the group were standing moments before, showering sparks beside it as it came to a halt. Lifting his head up, he managed to glimpse three figures sitting inside the shape, which he now surmised was a vehicle of some kind.

"The hell just happened?" Came the disgruntled voice of Sully.

"Once again, not sure," Nate grunted, pulling Elena up.

The vehicle had left tracks in the floor between the once-more blank wall and where it had come to a halt. They all looked at one another and drew weapons with a nod, approaching the vehicle with caution as parts dislodged themselves from it. As they came closer, they heard quiet voices.

~^v^~

The Rider shot out of the rift in what Daxter would later call "True style," crashing into the ground with a spine-shuddering thud and skidding along the stone floor for a few meters before coming to a complete halt. Jak's changing had halted, but he was unconscious from the stress it had put on his system. He now glowed with the faint white outline that showed his Light side was repairing what damage it could. Daxter was the first to speak, as usual.

"I swear I am never getting in one of these things again!" he shouted, tossing out a metal bar that had come off in his hands.

"Quit your whining, Daxter. Let's get Jak out of this thing and see if we can revive him," the Eco Sage said, jumping out of his seat and using his staff to channel his eco powers into levitating Jak from the Rift Rider.

"Uh, dad?" Keira called out. "We've got company."

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**A/N - So, what did you think of that? It's not really got going yet so I'll understand if the reviews aren't massive, but it's still no excuse for 2 lines. I'd like some comments on the alternate history I made up, as well as the way you think the characters might interact. Those are just a couple of ideas for you to think about in the review, but please go crazy with it! :) And as a final reminder, no reviews, no chapter 2. I mean it.**


	2. Convergence Point

**A/N - Here's chapter 2. the usual rules apply: read/review or chapter 3 says goodnight!**

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2. Convergance Point**  
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Drake was the first to get close enough to clearly see the vehicle's occupants. One short, green man, standing on chopped logs with another through his hair. More bizarrely, he held a glowing green staff, levitating a tall, green-blonde haired man from inside. The other occupants appeared to be a slender female with green-blue hair and her pet. All, save the animal, had abnormally long ears. They didn't appear to be armed and he began lowering his gun. Sully and Elena stopped at his side seconds later, momentarily halting his actions with their own raised firearms.

"Nate, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Sully growled. He didn't answer, instead holstering the pistol and approaching with his hands held up in front of him.

"Uh, hey there," he said tentatively. "We're uh…" it was then that Nathan realised he had no idea what to say.

"We mean you no harm," came the voice of the green man. He had since placed the body of the levitating man on the ground, which now radiated a faint white aura.

"Yeah, that's peachy. But who are you?"

"Sully, don't be rude," Elena snapped at the old man.

"It is alright, I expect you're thinking similar thoughts to our own," the man with the logs hopped onto a low wall, dangling his feet inches from the floor. "My name is Samos Hagai. This is my daughter, Keira. The man on the ground is Jak-"

"And I'm Daxter!" the animal shouted, startling the assembled humans. "But you can call me Orange Lightning, baby," it winked at Elena.

"You should ignore him," the one introduced as Keira said. "He's always like this."

"Yeah, I intend to," the blonde woman agreed.

"Well, good to meet you all. I'm Nathan, Nathan Drake. This is Sully and this is Elena Fisher," he gestured to each of them in turn.

"Kid, do you think you should be doing this? They could be the guys on our tails!" the cigar-smoking man sounded exasperated.

"Use your head a little, Sully," Nathan said. "They just came through a portal in the wall. They're clearly not from around here."

"You can say that again. I just don't trust 'em so easy," Sully grumbled adamantly.

Elena too had put her gun away by now, not seeing any of them as a threat. She now sat on a wall opposite Samos, looking at him curiously. He seemed to be doing something with the plants, though she couldn't tell what. The jungle now felt like it heaved with previously untapped energy and for some reason she felt that this little old man was something to do with it. The sweet scent of pollen flew up her nose, bringing with it a calmness she couldn't quite describe. After a few moments she gained the will to speak.

"What is it that you're doing?" She asked across to him. He did not respond and she tried again to get a response, but to no avail. She sighed heavily, giving up. The rodent had scurried off someplace; probably looking for bugs and the girl that had accompanied them appeared to be attempting to fix their vehicle. Elena attempted to spark a conversation with her instead.

"Hey, excuse me, Keira was it? Do you want me to give you a hand? I may not look much but I-"

"Nope," the teal-haired girl replied shortly.

Elena harrumphed and let her thoughts stray to her surroundings. When her party had arrived, the air had been so still, undisturbed for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, save for the occasional piece of wildlife that scampered through it. Now, it felt positively alive; the grasses and other flora swayed in a nonexistent breeze while the air itself seemed as though it had risen to regular room temperature. Her gaze dropped to the ground, to the face of the man that had arrived unconscious with them. As she examined his visage, his eyelids blinked open, revealing two hypnotic, big, deep blue irises that drew her pupils into them. They both looked into one other's eyes for several seconds before Samos tapped Jak on the stomach with his staff.

"Good, you seem to have reacted well to the increased amounts of Eco in the air here," he commented. "And I apologise for ignoring you Miss Fisher, I was channelling Eco and disruption would have been quite unhelpful for our friend here."

"I understand. I think," she replied, confused.

"No, you probably don't," came the voice of Keira, lifting her goggles off and putting them back in the vehicle. She approached the blonde woman and came about an inch from her face. "And don't look at my boyfriend like that again."

Elena wore a look of shock on her face, partly at the girl's audacity and partly at how sure she sounded that she was eyeing up her man. Didn't this girl know that she already had someone in whom she was interested and equally happy with? _No, you probably don't._ She mimicked mockingly in her mind.

While Drake and Sully were once more arguing over what to do with the new arrivals, Samos was explaining to Jak what had happened.

"Your Dark and Light sides had an unexpected reaction to the Rift, my boy. They were fighting one another for control of your body. I think this place, wherever it is, has an unusually high concentration of Eco. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing yet, but be careful all the same," the Sage took a deep breath, feeding a native bird that had perched on his log in his pause. "Now we need to wait for Keira to tell us how to get home again."

Jak interjected immediately. "I don't think we should rush to that, I want to explore this place a little, get to know who these people are. What did you say their names were?"

"Nathan Drake, Victor Sullivan and," the voice gritted its teeth. "Elena Fisher."

"Hey Keira," he began.

"Don't you "Hey Keira," me, mister. I saw the way you looked at her when you woke up."

"I'd just regained consciousness, I wasn't looking at her in any way," the warrior cried defensively. "I was trying to get my eyes into focus!"

The mechanic grumbled and moved on. "Anyway, the reason I came over was this," she reached into her pocket as Daxter bounded up onto Jak's shoulder.

"Where've you been?" Jak asked his friend.

"Just exploring," he commented, spinning a round piece of orange metal on the tip of one of his claws. The eco-infused man shook his head and sighed.

"This was a device I was working on with those Precursor Monks. It locates Precursor artefacts and trust me, we're going to need it if we want to get home again," the in-training eco-sage had obviously been busier than Jak had known. "We need three parts and I've picked up quite a few hits on the scanner so…"

"So let's get going, shall we?" a voice unfamiliar to Jak called out and drew their attention and they turned to see the fortune hunter Nathan Drake standing just inside a set of massive doors that led outside the place. They looked at one another and moved towards him as a group.

They passed the Rift Rider on their way out and Jak quickly hopped inside, rummaging around for something.

"Come on Jak, we haven't got all day," Daxter told his friend.

"Found it!" the warrior proclaimed, pulling his trademark Morph Gun out from the storage box. "Can't go anywhere without this, can I?"

"That thing's nothing compared to having Orange Lightning at your shoulder," the Ottsel shouted with exuberance.

"Yes, Dax," Jak agreed reluctantly.

The doors came closer and when they passed through, they saw Drake and Elena sitting inside a small, motorised vehicle, with Sully in another.

"Come on, more than enough space for the rest of you guys," Nate called to them. "Samos, Keira, you can come in with us. Jak, was it? You and Daxter are with Sullivan."

"Fine by me," Jak kept his features set into his permanent half-scowl when talking to the man. He didn't like him and was sure he was going to start hitting on Keira. If he did… well, Jak was just glad that he had his Morph Gun now, but set it to the Blaster mod just in case before climbing awkwardly into the passenger seat next to the old man.

"Just follow us," came Jak's competition over the radio, obviously speaking to Sully.

"Will do, kid," he switched off the radio. "You uh, sure that thing's not a toy?" Jak grunted, not wanting to open his mouth to the smoke billowing out of the older man on his left. "Forget I asked."


	3. Lethal Details

**A/N - Ok, sorry it took so long but SOMEONE (not naming any names) took far too long to review the last one! Hehe, anyway, here's chapter 3! Hope you enjoy it :D Read and review as normal, and spread the word if you like! Yeah, that's right, it's a suggestion, not a request or a demand.  
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3. Lethal Details

The jungle vibrated with life, in the same way it had always done for centuries previously. Birds of all sizes nested and called to one another noisily in the branches above while insects scurried about their daily work and foraging rituals as usual. The larger mammals lingering close to the trail stirred at the unfamiliar sounds moving along them; the sound of engines and voices. The balance of the jungle had been tipped significantly by these new arrivals and those creatures intelligent enough to realise it could feel the change. All around them, their world was being altered by a power far beyond their capacity to understand. Even those around the one controlling it had little knowledge of the influence the short green man had.

Samos sat calmly in the rear seat of the lead four-by-four vehicle, meditating and manipulating the huge concentrations of green eco in their present surroundings. The jungle's animals knew of the existence of the substance, but not of its significance to their survival. The Eco Sage, however, knew exactly what it was needed for and having seen the plentiful amount circulating in the area, had set about putting it in its place, allowing the flora and fauna to absorb it and use it to strengthen themselves.

What Samos did not know was that the increased movement of Eco in the air had caused it to come into contact with something hidden, and completely inactive on this world, in the sadly polluted environment.

"What's he doing back there anyway?" Nathan asked the girl seated next to the Sage.

"He's an Eco Sage," Keira explained. "And he has control over Green Eco and he's using it right now to empower the plants and animals in this jungle."

"I see," Nate said. "And what's Eco?"

"It's something that's all around us. It can be used as an energy source, for healing in the case of Green Eco, and several other things in the other types of Eco," she said. "I'm surprised you don't know any of this."

"Whatever Eco is, we've never heard of it before. Might just be something we have a different name for," Elena commented, receiving a scowl from the mechanic.

The dirt track began to narrow severely and Nathan put his hand up to signal Sully that he was stopping. The party dismounted their vehicles and Daxter scampered down from Jak's shoulder and scurried up onto the brown-haired man's instead.

"So, Nate, is it ok if I call you Nate?" the Ottsel asked without waiting for a reply. "I see you got the eye for Keira there and I wanted to give ya a word of advice," Daxter leaned in close to the man's ear. "Don't bother." He emphasised the point by cutting the air with his hand. "That girl's too much for even Jakky boy to handle, and he's save our world three times!"

Drake laughed. "Thanks, but I don't have any interest in your friend." He tickled the rodent playfully behind his ears, making him melt over his shoulder.

"Oooooh boy, that feels good. You done this before, big guy?"

As they continued up the trail, the group continued to mingle with one another, with Elena and Keira leading the way with her scanner, Jak, Nate and Daxter in the middle and Sully and Samos bringing up the rear.

"So," Victor said, lighting up his cigar once again. "You gotta be the smartest one of the bunch, right?"

"It doesn't take a genius to work that out," the Sage agreed. "But my daughter knows a few things that I could never understand. She always was like her mother..."

"Must've been a cute one, your wife."

Samos mumbled something, clearly not comfortable on the subject. He'd never really talked about the woman but everyone back home knew not to ask. Instead, he sparked the old man's archaeological interests. "So what did you make of the ruins we arrived in?"

"Oh back there? I guess it's Mayan," he theorised. "They have a knack for this voodoo portal stuff,"

Samos scoffed lightly. "You're obviously _not_ the smart one, are you? It was clearly Precursor built – the orange metal and the markings around the edge – telltale marks of the Precursors,"

"I don't know nothing about no Precursors," Sully countered. "They never mentioned them in Ancient History class. This area's covered in Mayan ruins, it's gotta be them!"

"Well," the Sage sighed. "The markings did seem similar to our own Precursor language, but there were distinct differences too. Perhaps your Mayans were linked to the Precursors somehow?"

The pair stopped and Sully drew long and deep on his cigar, expelling a perfect circle from his mouth before looking down at Samos and smiling broadly. "You know, I think you might be onto something there Sam," looking back up, he replaced his cigar and continued walking, leaving Samos somewhat bemused at being called "Sam."

~^v^~

"Keira," Elena said cautiously. "Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot. I was hoping we could talk a bit."

The she-elf shot a slightly venomous look at the blonde.

"About what?"

"Well I don't know," she replied, exasperated. "I'm trying to be friendly, least you could do is act the same in return!"

They realised that they'd pulled quite a distance from the others and stopped for a moment to let them catch up. Keira leaned against a nearby stone, wiping perspiration from her brow.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I've just been stressing myself with trying to find these parts. I just want to go home and I know it was a mistake coming here,"

"Hey, cheer up, it's not so bad really." The human woman searched for a reason as to why this was. "Because… you've got your boyfriend and father here, right?"

Keira smiled kindly in a way Elena hadn't yet seen. "Yeah, you're right," she agreed. "Jak's always looked out for me and so has dad,"

"See?" she tapped the teal-haired mechanic on the side of her arm as the others started to reappear. They began to walk again, keeping out of earshot of the following group and Elena glanced back at the boys before turning back to her conversation. "Anyway, about those boyfriends of ours…"

"You mean Nathan and Jak?"

"Yeah," she paused, double-checking on the distance they were keeping. "Does yours keep leaving the toilet seat up?"

"Oh Precursors, that annoys me!" Keira almost shouted. The journalist was almost worried by her volume but they'd finally found some common ground and that was enough to waive it. "You know, he never listens when I tell him to put it down when he's done!"

"I know what you mean," Elena chuckled in return. "And don't you hate how they never seem to remember anything you've said?"

"Tell me about it. Every time he goes out on his jetboard, I tell him to be careful and every time he comes back having broken it in some new way,"

The two women continued to trade secrets and pet peeves about their boyfriends the whole trail, neither admitting their own secret crushes on one another's male acquaintances.

~^v^~

"They seem to be enjoying themselves," Nathan commented, seeing Elena and Keira burst into laughter for the fiftieth time. "Y'know I was worried they wouldn't get on,"

"Keira can be difficult to come to an agreement with," Jak agreed. He'd almost entirely forgotten about his animosity to the human male on his right. Almost, that is, until he realised his best friend was still perched lazily on the man's shoulder. His rage boiled up once again and small fronds of purple lightning crackled around his knuckles.

"Hey, calm down there, stormy weather!" Drake chuckled. "You look like you're turning to the Dark Side-"

"Shut up," the elfin man spat. "Daxter, get back over here," he commanded.

"Right!" The Ottsel jumped across to Jak's metal shoulder pad and then hissed in his ear. "What d'you think you're doin, big guy? You look just abut ready to turn into tall dark and gruesome,"

"I am," he growled back at his friend, allowing his fingers to lengthen themselves into razor sharp claws. "I want nothing more than to tear that cocky bastard limb from limb right now,"

"Come on, not right now Jak. He's not worth the effort. Sure, he's looked at your girl and rubbed you the wrong way, but so did Errol, and you didn't-" Daxter cut himself off, realising what he was saying. "Ok, bad example. But let it go for now. Besides, we need his help to get us home, right?"

Jak continued to growl instead of breathe properly, but gradually let his hands return to normal and let his Darkness rest. "All right Dax, but only because you asked me," the warrior concurred through gritted, still pointed teeth.


	4. Crashing Down

**A/N - I'm sorry this took so long. Can't make the excuse that I've been doing other things, really. Other than my girlfriend but I'm not going into THAT :P This is T rated, after all... eheh, anyway, it's here now! So, read/review to make me happy and ensure that you get a chapter 5! :D

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4. Crashing Down

The strangest band of travellers arrived in front of the sheer cliff face into which the temple was carved. Keira's scanner beeped urgently, suggesting that a Precursor artefact was hidden away inside the ruin.

"I hope you guys are ready for this," Drake warned. "There's no telling what we'll find in these places."

Jak simply unslung his Morph Gun in reply, making sure that the pinpoint accurate Blaster mod was selected.

"Okay then," Nate observed, pulling out his pistol and gesturing inside. "Now that's covered, shall we?"

The group entered the monolithic structure, filing through the comparatively small doorway into a large chamber. No sooner had the entire group entered than the door closed automatically behind them, the echoes of stone meeting stone cascading to the ceiling.

"Well that's just great. I hope you've got a plan to get us out of here, Nate," Sully grumbled.

"Working on it," he replied, as if he'd said it a hundred times before.

The floor was mostly taken up by a massive flat square area, almost like a dance floor. It now split down the middle, revealing a pool of crystal clear water. Below its surface, there appeared to be a statue of some kind, three figures holding up three swords. Similarly in the ceiling above it was an almost mirror image, but the figures held the swords in their feet.

"Try to raise the bottom statue, Jak," chirped Daxter from the warrior's shoulder. The Ottsel earned a surprised look from his three elfin comrades. "What? It's obvious that's what he has to do," he defended.

"Hang on, I think I've seen this before," Nathan reached into his pocket and withdrew a battered journal. The pages were worn on the edges and browned almost as much as the leather cover that held it together, but its obvious frailty didn't stop Drake from thumbing through it roughly. After a few seconds, he spread the pages out and slapped it down on a nearby rock. "Here, Jak." He motioned the other man to look at the book. Grudgingly, he walked over to take a look. The pair talked, pointed and whispered about the pages for a few minutes.

"Ok," Jak looked up from the tome. "So who's going which way?"

"Well, how do you feel about heights?" Drake asked.

"A lot better than I do about going underwater," Jak replied. "Everything seems a lot harder when water's involved,"

"Yeah, you're telling me," the fortune hunter agreed. "Well, let's flip a coin. Heads I go under, tails it's you, deal?"

The younger of the two men nodded and Drake retrieved a shining disc from his pocket. He placed it on the connection between his thumb and index finger and flicked the thumb up, sending the coin flying high into the air. It flipped and span, seemingly achieving perpetual motion in flight, before finally dropping back down and succumbing to the tyranny of gravity. Nate's bare hand grabbed it, slapping in down on the back of his free hand. He offered both hands out, allowing Jak to see the result clearly and revealed it. A second of silence was followed by a curse from Jak.

"Hard luck, friend," Drake slapped Jak on the back and chuckled.

"Fine, but you're going under next time," the eco-infused warrior retorted. "And hopefully you'll drown," he continued under his breath.

"By the way Nate." Elena grabbed the man's arm, stopping him dead with the look on her face.

"What, you want to give me a good-luck kiss? I've done this a million times before, I won't fall,"

"Nate, seriously," she urged.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, we'll be done before they even have a chance to catch up," he reassured her.

Without another word, Drake turned and began clambering up the nearest pillar with surprising ease. A few times up to the first level his foot slipped, sending small segments of crumbling wall to the ground. Jak was relatively surprised at the lack of difficulty the wall posed to the man. Perhaps these people weren't as bad as he'd first assumed.

Jak moved his goggles over his eyes and took a deep breath before diving down into the crystal clear water. The inner workings of the eyepieces span into motion, clearing the man's vision in the surprisingly murky water. He guessed that his entrance had thrown up ages-undisturbed dirt, but put it from his mind as he searched around, trying to figure out how to raise the statue. He returned to the surface several times during his hunt for the mechanism and although the main reason was to gulp down a few more seconds of air, he also used it as a chance to check on Drake's progress.

The slightly older man had finished climbing a lot quicker than Jak had expected and he would later admit, though not to Drake's face, that he was fairly impressed with his progress. Now, however, the long-eared blonde floated momentarily, looking up as Nathan barely made a particularly long jump. The slight echo of his voice carried down to the waiting ground party with the words "I'm okay!" only just reaching them. Jak frowned in slight disappointment and dived down once more.

This time, he found exactly what he was looking for. His fingers scrabbled at a rusty metal pole on a single hinge. Without thinking, he tugged hard on it, only to have it snap in his hand. A few bubbles of a slightly unsavoury outburst permeated through the water, rising to the surface and popping. With a push, Jak followed their lead and hauled himself up onto the edge. Without saying a word, he strode angrily away from the pool, picked up his Morph and returned, aiming it carefully into the water. He held his breath momentarily, steadying his aim and gently squeezed the trigger. The sizzling hot projectile left the barrel at high speed, entering the water with a light _splish_. Jak adjusted his aim and repeated the process twice more, moving around the edges of the pool. With the third shot, the statue under the water raised itself up, ascending around two meters into the air before stopping.

Nate was having a much harder time. He constantly returned to his notebook, looking for clues as to what he was supposed to do. The fortune hunter sat against a wall dejectedly; he'd gotten all the way up here only to find out he hadn't a clue what to do. He pulled out his gun, examining it absent-mindedly and thinking about what he should do now. There was no way to get the damn thing to drop…

A bright yellow streak caught his attention; if he'd have blinked, it would have escaped him, but another followed only a few seconds later. They seemed to be coming from below. Drake crawled forwards and peered over the edge cautiously. He immediately regretted it, being hit with a minor case of vertigo. He wasn't afraid of heights, but even he didn't want to think about how high up he was. Another bright blur passed him and buried itself in the ceiling, dislodging a chunk from it. He looked up at where they'd made contact; fairly close around a chain that, when followed, proved to be connected to the statue. He realised what was happening now and wasn't keen on it. He knew that trying to cheat ancient systems with new technology rarely worked. There wasn't anything he could do about it now though, as he would bet they couldn't hear him over the crack of whatever firearm was discharging those shots.

Nathan withdrew even further at the next object to come crashing into the ceiling. A blue-white ball of crackling electricity hit close to the mooring chains and exploded violently, the lightning extending from it and striking the other two support chains, as well as the platform Drake sat on. It rumbled worryingly before cracks began to appear in its rocky surface. He let slip an uneasy "Oh shit," before hastily holstering his weapon and jumping to his feet in an attempt to depart from the crumbling ledge. His efforts did not help him as the floor fell from beneath his feet and the entire carved rock departed from the wall.

The others had watched the explosion from the Peacemaker in awe. Even Jak had to admit that it was impressive, despite having seen it many times before. As the dust cleared, they saw that the weapon had done its job. The downside, however – to everyone but Jak, at least – was that Nathan Drake was now in freefall, with a very long drop between him and the ground. The man's scream reached them only a half a second.

Nate couldn't stop the scream escaping his throat, despite instinctively knowing what to do. He balanced for a second and used what little lateral momentum he could gather to push from the falling platform. He spread himself wide, urging every cell in his body to stretch out towards the hanging chain. His fingers brushed against the cold metal, receiving a sharp electrical shock; evidently an effect of the explosive. His hands retracted momentarily, but grabbed at the chain again regardless. Though both hands now grasped the metal linked rings tightly, the cold material slipped through them at a far quicker rate than the treasure hunter was comfortable with. He wrestled his feet into the equation, using them as an additional brake. This helped, finally stopping him only a few links from the bottom of what remained of the chain, which also brought him onto the top of a pile of rubble caused by the falling statue.

The group on the ground had watched this whole sequence take place in about five seconds, hardly believing the man's reflexes. They all stood open-mouthed, staring at the man who had, quite simply, defied death. Samos was the first to snap out of the state of shock that Drake's daring survival had induced. He examined the man quickly as he descended from the pile of rubble and, despite a few bruises, surmised that he would be ok.

"That was impressive, Nathan," he commented. "I daresay Jak could learn a thing or two from you."

The long-eared man growled quietly at the statement and advanced on the remains of the statues. He'd already seen what they were there for. He hopped across the water and bent down to pick up an orange object.

"Oh, you found it Jak!" congratulated Keira. "It must have been hidden inside one of the statues."

"Yeah, hooray for us," came Sullivan's voice. "But we gotta get out of here now. Nate?"

"Oh, right," he hesitated and then turned to the group of travellers. "Before we got here, we were sort of being followed."

"By whom?" Keira asked.

The massive stone door exploded inwards, showering the room with yet more debris and allowing a large amount of armed humans to spill inside.

"Them."

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**A/N PLUS: Go read MikaHaeli8's stories. She is my amazing writer/singer/songwriter/gamer/sexy girlfriend. I guess she's one of the reasosns my chapters come out so slowly... and why I put them up in the first place. :D So yeah, any delays, blame her! ^_^ **


	5. Ancient Flashpoint

**A/N - Apologies for the wait! Have been rather busy with college work and generally being lazy with writing. So hey, let's get this show on the road!**

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5. Ancient Flashpoint

The bullets began flying almost instantly, barely giving everyone time to dart into cover behind the centuries-worn rocks. Drake and Elena had drawn their pistols before their knees even hit the ground, while Sully whipped his .44 Magnum from its holster and stood behind a particularly wide pillar. Jak, Samos and Keira had all dived in the opposite direction, sending Daxter tumbling from Jak's shoulder.

It took Jak a while to realise what the rapid succession of cracks echoing all around him actually were. He rolled over, looking up at the three people who called this world their home and seeing that the source of a small amount of the cracks was coming from them; more specifically, their pistols. Though the designs differed heavily from Haven's standard handguns, he recognised them and surmised through their size alone that the weapons of the invaders were vastly superior to Drake and his friends' small compliment.

With no small amount of pride, he picked up his own Morph Gun, flicked over to the Vulcan Fury and rested it on the rocks above the heads of his prone friends. The fire coming from the other side was concentrated on the other group, so Jak's setting up went unnoticed.

"Cover your ears," he said to Keira and Samos, who obliged straight away. Daxter had since returned to his shoulder plate, grumbling about ending up on the floor like a common rat.

Jak pressed his thumb down on the button that allowed the Fury to spin its six barrels up to their maximum speed before squeezing the main trigger with his index finger. The Blue Eco powered bullets exited at high speed from the main barrel, flying straight and true towards the men wielding assault rifles towards the temple's entrance. The noise of the weapon took a little of the heat off Drake's group but otherwise had very little effect on the volume of targets. Jak growled and switched out to the Beam Reflexor, shifting his footing as he brought the gun up to his shoulder.

~^v^~

Nate took a glance over to the new arrivals just as the young elfin male stopped firing what looked like some kind of minigun. He stared in disbelief as the weapon suddenly transformed in Jak's hands into a single shot rifle. He made a mental note to _"get one of those,"_ and returned his attention to the attackers. He noticed that their numbers had dwindled significantly and continued to drop with each shot that came from the other man's firearm. Drake fired off a few more shots, emptying the magazine, but without successfully hitting anything. Jak, on the other hand, seemed to have transformed his gun yet again.

~^v^~

Getting ever more annoyed with the unwanted guests, Jak fired the last shot from the Yellow Mod and switched to the Plasmite RPG. He aimed it upwards slightly, sending a few of the explosives soaring through the air before they dropped and made contact with the ground, exploding seconds later and sending several bodies flying over the chest-high walls. The detonations served a second purpose, sending the remaining attackers fleeing back out of temple and into the jungle.

He was tempted to give chase and finish them off, but a sound to his right stopped him. He looked down to see Keira's lower half shifting, making spent Fury casings clatter to the floor. The young man had to admit that he rather enjoyed this view of his girlfriend, and noted a single casing lying comfortably between the almost perfectly round lumps protruding from the rear of her purple trousers. He chuckled lightly before looking in dismay at the ammo count on his Morph gun.

"Running on empty now, big guy?" Daxter queried.

"Yeah." The warrior sounded genuinely disappointed and Daxter couldn't help but feel sorry for his friend.

Drake, Sully and Elena approached the others cautiously; after seeing Jak's weapons display, they all felt as if they had to tread a little more carefully around him.

"That was quite something, kid," Sully commented, laughing nervously. "You got a cigar lighter on that thing too?"

Jak ignored the jibe and switched the Morph to the Scatter mod for the simple reason that it was the smallest mode, before throwing it onto his back again.

"Who were those guys, Eco Pirates or something?" Jak asked curiously.

"What?" Drake laughed. "That may be the stupidest thing I have ever heard."

"Maybe to you," the blonde muttered under his breath.

"Anyway," Nathan said forcefully, overpowering Jak's grumbling. "Who they were isn't important. You got what we came here for, right?"

"That's right," Keira responded. "Now there are three more hits on my scanner, so we should check them out as soon as possible."

"Okay, but first-" the native was pre-empted by his stomach, which growled as furiously as if it had been fuelled by Dark Eco. "I think we should get some food."

"How about a doughnut, Drake?" Elena sniggered.

He laughed sarcastically in reply and made his way to the entrance. "Hey, Jak," he called. "If you're empty, grab a weapon from one of these guys."

Jak tilted his head curiously. _Dead guys give me ammo, not their guns._ He was about to ask what Drake meant, but he'd already disappeared. Elena handed him a small, flimsy feeling weapon with a smile and sat down, reloading her own pistol with retrieved, half-empty magazines. Jak, deciding that he had no choice, dropped to the floor himself and picked up one of the curved black boxes that the native woman had found and tried to mimic her actions.

A minute later, Jak dropped the poor excuse for a firearm in frustration, causing Keira to dart over. She'd felt it earlier when he was about to go Dark and definitely did not want him to do so now. The teal-haired woman threw her arms around Jak's neck from behind and dropped to her knees, hugging him tightly.

"What's up?" she asked into his ear.

He gestured to the bullets, magazines and weapon on the floor and turned his head to kiss Keira on the cheek. She giggled and nodded lightly before sitting next to her boyfriend and showing him how to load the gun up properly. As she talked him through the steps, Elena and Sully sat watching in amazement.

"Strange, ain't it?" he said. "How she knows how our tech works without even thinking."

"I don't get it, I thought she'd just been watching me," Elena replied, confused.

"Look at her eyes. She's on autopilot." Sully took a drag on his cigar. "I've only seen that look before, and that's when Drake knows exactly what he's doing."

"Surprised you know it so well," she chuckled back at him. "I've never once seen him knowing what he was doing."

"Yeah, well, that's Nate."

~^v^~

It wasn't long before Drake returned to the ruins with food from the four-by-fours, but it had already gotten dark. Samos had entered a meditative state, emitting a light green glow that blended calmly with the orange of a small campfire. The unlikely group sat around warming their hands with the dual-purpose fire that also cooked their dinner. The meal appeared to be a simple soup, but upon spooning it into their mouths, each and every one of them felt such a warmth and energy spread through them that they could hardly believe it. Jak even requested a second helping, despite Drake being the cook.

As they sat talking, Samos continued his meditations. He could sense something within the forest and it felt like it was moving closer. Requesting the aid of the Green Eco all around, he built up a vessel with which he could observe this movement in his mind's eye from within his trance. He felt himself rushing through the thickly wooded surroundings and soared upwards, flying high above the canopy of trees. He looked down, seeing the vast greenery bathed in the pleasant white light from the moon, unobscured by the clouds. Distracting himself from the serene beauty of this alien planet, he sent the amalgamation of Eco straight towards the source of the disturbance.

He was given but a split second to see the cause before the swarming mass swallowed the Green Eco completely. Such was the violence of the act that it knocked the Sage out of his trance completely, dropping him to the floor abruptly and calling the attention of the others towards him.

"Dad," Keira called, scrambling to her feet. "Are you okay? I've never seen you drop out of your meditation like that before."

"Yes, Keira, I'm fine," he assured her. "But I have some grave news for you all."

"Oh boy, here we go again," came the voice of the furriest member of the group. "Do you ever have any _good _news, Greenie?"

He ignored the Ottsel and addressed the others. "I sensed a disturbance-"

"In the Force," Nathan cut in with a deep voice, chuckling. This caused Elena and Sully to both stifle their own giggles upon seeing the seriousness on Samos' face.

"A disturbance," he repeated. "In the forest." His expression was one of extreme worry and both Jak and Keira knew that what he was about to say would spell trouble for all of them. "I sought to find the source by massing the Green Eco in the area, but when I found it, the Eco was all but devoured."

Jak's expression darkened, Keira gasped and Daxter gulped. There was only one creature they knew consumed Eco and its presence here would make getting home a lot more difficult.

Sully pulled the cigar from his mouth. "You know something we don't. Come on, what gives?"

Jak's reply was short and grim.

"Metal Heads."

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**A/N - Now _this_ should be interesting!**


	6. Jungle Fury

**A/N - Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. Been quite busy, I'm afraid! Anyway, here it is, new chapter. Enjoy, read, reviews and all that jazz. Y'all know the drill by now :)**

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6. Jungle Fury

The Metal Heads had almost always been there; lying dormant for millennia, unable to move without the circulation of Eco in the air. Their stasis could only be maintained for so long and they numbered under a hundred by the time the Haveners came to this world. The arrival of the foreigners kicked up Eco like so much dust on a long-forgotten shelf, waking the monsters from their reverie.

Over the thousands of years, Metal Heads had been the cause of uncountable mysterious sightings all over the planet, including the Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra and Sasquatch to name a few. These sightings decreased over time as the Metal Heads either died or went into hiding while Earth industrialised itself and stopped drawing its power from nature. The remaining Metal Heads nestled themselves to the closest source of Dark Eco they could find; the molten lava that filled the centre of the Earth, allowing it to keep them alive far beyond their usual life spans.

Now, the Earth's Eco reserves had been stirred, just enough for those within range to sense. One by one, the Metal Heads began to wake up and as they did so, they converged upon the source of the Eco's disturbance.

~O~

"That sounds bad. That's bad, isn't it?" Drake spoke first to himself and turned rapidly to his companions with his question, somehow expecting them to know what "Metal Heads" were. Both shrugged as Samos began to speak.

"Yes, they are bad news I'm afraid," Samos said gravely, massaging his head. "They are terrible creatures that inhabit our home."

"I've seen some pretty terrible creatures myself," Drake said somewhat cockily. "Not least of all Elena when she's pissed off!"

The comment earned him a hard smack around the back of the head from the blonde.

"You'll know one when you see it," came Jak's surprisingly solemn voice from beside the fire. "Keep your eyes open for a yellow skull gems."

"Sounds easy enough. Never met anything that couldn't be taken out with good old-fashioned bullets and explosions " said Drake, rather more brightly than he should have.

"The Metal Heads aren't a joke," Jak stood up, pointing angrily at Drake to enforce his point. "They will chew you up and spit you out. Literally."

The rest of the group sat silently, finishing up their meal. Few words were exchanged before they put out the fire and started moving. Sully wanted to stay put, but the others agreed that the Metal Heads were enough of a threat to make them move. Samos had said they would have sensed his disruption of the dormant Eco and they would be on their way to the source of that disturbance. The Sage also assured them that he would not disturb the Eco any further in an effort to prevent he Metal Heads tracking them.

The pace on the way away from the ruins was far quicker than the journey towards it. In half the time it had taken them to travel up the path, they had made their way all the way back down. They mounted up in the jeeps and set off. Nate once more drove the lead four-by-four, allowing Keira to navigate for him. Samos sat in the rear, keeping a watch on the Eco fluctuations. Jak, Daxter, Sully and Elena occupied the rear vehicle, neither wanting to sit next to the old man.

The road – if it could even be called that – continued twisting and turning sharply beneath them, roving worryingly close to the edge of a cliff before meandering its way back into the depths of the forest. They bounced through the overgrowth as it sprawled across the unused dirt tracks. They did not realise for a time, but almost all sound had disappeared from the surroundings, save for the deep growl of the engines. Jak's young ears were the first to pick up the relative silence and his companion sensed his unease.

"What's up, big guy?" Daxter enquired.

"Something's wrong," he said quietly.

"You're telling me!" the Ottsel coughed in reply. "That must have been the bazillionth bug I've swallowed today! I'm telling you Jak, I've had it with bugs. After all the – "

"Shhh!" Jak clamped his hand over the furry creature's mouth. "Take a second to listen instead of talk, Dax," he removed his hand and used it to pick up a device he'd seen his driver use to speak to his counterpart in the vehicle ahead of them. "Keira?"

In the front jeep, the impromptu navigator heard her name being called by a very familiar voice.

"Jak?" she asked the voice's direction. The mechanic turned around to see Jak holding a small black device to his mouth and heard her name being called from the front of the motorised transport once again. She picked up the device and pressed the button on the side. "What's up, Jak?"

"Wake Samos up, we've got trouble," came the response over the radio, distorted static.

Without letting go of the black box, she placed her free hand on her father's shoulder and shook him gently, quietly wondering how on earth he could sleep at all.

"What is it Keira?" he asked. Before she had a chance to respond, he had already deduced the reason. "Oh my," he turned his attention rapidly to Drake. "Speed up, my boy,"

"Not usually one to argue, but why?"

"They're here," Samos said.

"What? Who?" Nate shouted.

"Them!" Keira pointed to their right.

Alongside them, on both sides, were several animals that Nathan and his friends had never seen before. Snarling, slobbering beasts, bigger than a lion and running on all fours, dark scales akin to the midnight sky covered the parts of their bodies that they could see, while the obvious areas were protected by bone-coloured armour, which sported a shining yellow gem embedded in their foreheads. These, they guessed, were the Metal Heads that Jak had warned them about.

"Ah shit," Drake cursed, grabbing the radio from Keira. "Sully, put your foot down!" and turning to his passengers, he uttered a quick warning. "Hold on tight, things are going to get a little bumpy!"

Behind them, Victor gave a similar warning to Jak and Elena before slamming his foot onto the floor in an effort to keep up with the car in front.

The Metal Heads momentarily fell back after the burst of speed but caught up once more all too quickly. The one closest to the front increased its speed further still, and swerved across the track in front of Drake's jeep. He almost wrenched the wheel to the side to avoid hitting it, but Jak's words echoed in his head and he decided that it would be better if they did manage to hit it. Sadly, it was far too quick and made it all the way to the other side, continuing to keep speed with the rapid convoy.

Keira continued to direct them, shouting directions when they got close. Jak, on the other hand, was in no mood for a chase. He pulled out the tiny rifle and pressed the stock into his shoulder, taking aim at the nearest Metal Head.

_Time to see what this thing can do…_ Jak thought, doubtfully.

He held his breath and squeezed the trigger.


	7. Dark Metal

**A/N – Hmm, I think this one might end up being a little longer than I'd expected! Oh well, I'm sure you wont complain about that, will you? :P As usual, read, review, and most importantly, ENJOY! :D**

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7. Dark Metal

The short burst missed as Jak felt the weapon kick back far more than a rifle of its size should have done and tensed up to compensate. He zeroed in his aim on the Metal Head once more and squeezed the trigger, this time keeping it steady. The bullets ripped through the Metal Head's midnight blue scales, spewing blood from the wounds in its side. The creature's legs faltered beneath itself and it tripped, the momentum sending it flying into a forward somersault. Jak smiled, glad that he now knew these weapons, primitive though they were, would be effective enough against the beasts. He glanced over his shoulder at the blonde woman firing her pistol at another Metal Head to no avail. Her shots were all making contact with the bone-coloured armour plates that protected them and having little to no effect. Double-checking that his side was clear, he turned to aid Elena.

~o~

In the front car, Nate and Keira had switched seats so that now the teal-haired mechanic was driving while the fortune hunter fired wildly out to the sides. His bullets flew all around the plated beasts, though very few actually made contact and those that did met only the solid white armour. Expending a magazine, he reloaded and glanced over to see how Sully, Elena and to a lesser extent, Jak were doing. He was almost thrown out of the jeep as Keira wrenched them around a tight corner, because what he saw made him lose his balance.

"Go for the scales," Jak said calmly.

"I'm trying, but-" they hit a bump heavily, momentarily halting Elena's speech. "But it's kind of difficult to aim!"

"Here," Jak dropped his rifle and moved closer to Elena. He held her from behind, steadying her aim by locking his arms beside hers, adding his hands to her own on the sides of the pistol. The woman would have blushed if she were not in mortal danger right at that second. "Breathe in. Hold it. Aim just ahead of the eye," Jak's words were relatively quiet, but bridged the short distance between his lips and Elena's ears easily enough. "Keep holding that breath…and…fire."

The pistol recoiled only a little thanks to the two pairs of hands gripping it, and it sent a single bullet flying straight into the Metal Head's left eye, exiting in a violent purple plume from the other. It slumped, skidding along the ground a few meters before its Skull Gem popped out, signifying the end of its life.

"Wow," Elena said as she let out the breath she had been holding. She turned her head and ended up looking into Jak's deep cerulean eyes. For a second, she lost all conscious ability to talk and think as the young man smiled at her. As soon as she realised what they must look like, she wriggled free as her cheeks turned a bright red. "You're… good," she said sheepishly, brushing a lock of hair away from her eyes.

~o~

Nathan had seen the whole thing and his mind was already formulating what they could possibly have been saying.

_"Oh, Jak, you're so handsome,"_

"_Tell me about it, baby,"_

"_Take me now!"_

"DUCK!" Keira shouted, snapping Drake out of his wild assumptions. He lowered his head just in time as they swept under a particularly low and thick branch. "By the way," Keira shouted, not taking her eyes from the track. "Have you forgotten that we're still being chased by Metal Heads?"

"Shit," he cursed, cocking the assault rifle and starting to shoot again.

"You might want to try aiming," said Samos.

"For what?" the human male shouted back. "They don't seem to go down!"

"Oh, I don't know, perhaps the parts without armour?" the Sage replied irritably.

"Oh," Drake said simply. He brought his gun up, aimed at where the ribcage would be on a normal animal, and pulled the trigger.

_Click._

He squeezed again.

_Click._

"Ah shit," he swore again. The treasure hunter threw down his gun and picked up the radio. "Hey, Keira? how far away are we?" he asked before speaking into the small black box.

"At this speed, we'll be there in a few minutes," she replied, rather calmer than he had expected. "But we'll be lucky if we make it there in one piece!" the elfin woman added as a Metal Head rammed into the side of the vehicle, denting the door significantly.

"Sully, we'll be there in a few minutes," he said, holding the radio button. "The path widens up ahead, so get alongside us and help us out if you can!"

"Will do, kid," the old man acknowledged.

Sullivan instructed his passengers to buckle up and gunned the engine as hard as he could. The road did indeed widen in front of them, but as they burst out into open sunlight once more, they came out onto a long stretch bordered by a thick wall of trees to the left and an extreme drop to the right. The following 4x4 came in close behind the Metal Head to the left side of the front one, almost catching it under its tyres, but it pulled far ahead at the last second. In fact, it kept running even faster and then skidded around to face them.

"It's charging us?" Elena shouted. "Is it insane?"

"Not likely," Jak replied. He put a hand on his driver's shoulder. "Whatever you do, don't let up."

The Metal Head kept running toward the jeep and Sully met its eyes determinedly.

"Come on, you son of a bitch," he growled. "Let's see how big your balls really are." He pressed even harder into the accelerator pedal, even though it was already on the floor.

The distance closed quickly, Elena's eyes rapidly darting between the Metal Head, Sully and Jak as she wondered what would happen. Both Jak and Sully, however, did not take their eyes off the beast. Jak knew what was going to happen; he remembered when he, Torn, Jinx and Sig had to break through to the Metal Head nest in Haven during the war.

It drew closer and closer and Jak stood up, feeling the strength of the whistling wind on the cliff edge combined with the speed at which they were travelling. He closed his eyes and regulated his breathing. His skin and hair began to turn ashen grey as purple forks of lightning flew from his body. His fingers elongated into razor-sharp claws and when he opened his eyes again, they were bottomless black pits of hatred, aimed only at these monsters.

The Metal Head coiled backwards and launched itself into the air. It arced high in front of them, reaching its peak and then descending towards their Dark Warrior armed vehicle. Jak eased Light into his veins to counteract the Dark, to maintain control of himself and crouched low, bringing his arm back. The instant the Metal Head was in range, he swept the clawed hand upwards, slicing through armour, scale, muscle and bone in a spray of purple. By the time the dead creature landed behind them, Jak had reverted himself back to his normal form and was nursing his head.

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**Quite enjoyed writing this, but I must admit I'm worried about pissing off J&D fans with Jak being able to control his Dark powers. I reckon it makes sense that he uses Light to balance it out and keep that control, but I know some J&D fans would be really, really annoyed that I did that. So please, go easy on me if it does annoy you.**


	8. Unstoppable

**A/N – I'm extremely sorry about the wait! College has been mucho hectic and t be honest, I'd forgotten all about this story. Most of my writing energy was focused on my story over on fictionpress (which is finished now, but just needs editing again.)**

**Anyway, I hope this will have been worth the wait. I reckon I have a few more chapters to go before we finish.  
Also, sorry about the title Mika, I did kinda steal it ^^'  
**

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8. Unstoppable

The two four-by-fours skidded to a halt, battered but still operational, outside their destination. The Metal Head attack had taken them all by surprise, but Jak told them they had nothing to worry about.

"Metal Heads are usually more concentrated than that," he said. "If there were only four, then there must not be many of them here."

The group, though shaken by the attack, debarked from the vehicles and pressed onwards through the rusty portcullis embedded in the mossy stone wall. They walked a small way, traversing a small bubbling bog area in through which Jak and Daxter kept their eyes trained on the surface for any signs of ambushing Metal Heads. On the other side was a simple clearing in the trees. The ground was covered with short, well-kept grass while a thin dirt trail carved a short path towards the centre, where a stone pedestal held the second ancient Precursor artefact.

"Well, that's easy enough," Daxter chirped, hopping down from his friend's shoulder. "I'll just grab this and we'll be on our way!"

The pants-clad Ottsel trotted up the path and clambered up to the top of the plinth. He circled the item for a moment to worried looks from his three comrades.

"Um, Dax, you do remember what happened the last time you picked up one of those things, right?" his friend enquired.

"Relax, buddy," the orange rodent replied. "Lightning don't strike twice," he paused for a second, pondering his previous words. "Unless it's me. ZA-ZA-ZING!" The Ottsel shouted these words with gusto, zipping about the platform in an exaggerated motion. So caught up in his performance was he that he paid no attention to his tail, which collided with the artefact, dislodging it from its perch and sending it careening to the floor.

The eyes of the younger Haveners widened as it tumbled but Samos instinctively summoned a cluster of Green Eco to catch the object before it could hit the floor and break.

"Perhaps that will teach you to stop fooling around!" the Sage shouted angrily.

Daxter was about to retaliate when the floor began vibrating. All seven of them looked around, wondering what was happening.

"Feels like an earthquake," Sully said, taking his cigar from his mouth. "Nothing to worry about in these parts, small tremors are as common as storms,"

"No, hang on a sec there Sully," Nate said cautiously. "You guys feel that?"

They all stood still for a few moments, trying to figure out what the treasure hunter was feeling.

"It's rhythmic," Elena said. "And… it's getting heavier,"

"Yeah, and louder too," Drake agreed.

Daxter scampered back on to Jak's shoulder, crouching and whispering into his ear. "Just so you know, it, er, wasn't my fault, alright?"

The vibrations continued to increase in their ferocity, building periodically and with worrying pace. Pebbles from the wall were dislodging themselves, clattering down its rocky surface and the stuck open portcullis shook free from the ages of rust, grinding closed, slowly at first but quickly gaining speed and becoming unstoppable. It slammed against the dirt, shuddering in its confines and the new holes it had created for itself on the ground.

"Oh my," came the voice of Samos suddenly. "Loate as I am to say it, Daxter's right; I'm afraid this is my fault. I used Eco to halt the artefact's fall. It may have called the attention of one or two Metal Heads,"

"No offence old man," Nathan said with a slight edge in his tone. "But that doesn't sound like one or two to me,"

They all gathered close together, seeing no way out of the clearing and preparing for a fight, drawing weapons. The rumbling was terrible by now, knocking the stone pedestal over and almost making it impossible to stand.

Out from the trees, an unearthly roar erupted, unlike anything almost all of them had heard until now. They turned towards the source, seeing the shapes of trees falling to the sides as an obviously monstrous creature barrelled through, crushing and destroying everything in its path.

"Everyone, you need to get back," Jak growled. "I've seen these things before and I might not be able to stop it,"

"We've got your back," Elena assured.

"Yeah, we're not letting you handle this alone," Drake agreed.

"I'm serious, these Metal Heads are nothing like the ones we fought before. Now get away!" the Dark Warrior shouted.

The three Earth-dwellers retreated reluctantly as a massive grey mass exploded from the trees, a glowing yellow gem embedded in its head just in front of a curved shining silver spike. Its entire body, including the four short legs, was covered in thick armour plates and its tiny eyes were almost covered too. It reminded the humans of a rhinoceros, albeit larger and much meaner looking.

It kept its head low, horn angled to penetrate anything that came within range, and continued charging straight towards Jak. The one advantage he had over the beast was speed and he used it to dodge left of the monster, smiling a little as he did so. His dodge sent the Metal Head charging into the stone wall. It attempted to change course, skidding wildly and swinging its mass around with surprising agility, but it was not enough. The creature's mass hit the wall with almost the full speed of its charge, smashing through it as if it were simply paper. The rocks crumbled and dropped onto its plates, some even breaking on impact and burying it under rubble. For a tense few moments it did not move and Jak dared to believe it might have been killed or at least knocked unconscious. However, it gave a low growl and lifted itself back onto its feet, shaking rubble from its plates.

_Not enough Dark left for this kind of fight,_ Jak thought. _We're going to need a miracle._

* * *

**A/N - As if making you wait this long wasn't enough, I'm now leaving it on a cliffhanger! Haha! Sorry guys. JKA consider this revenge for the cliffy you left US on. From both Mika and I. ;3**_  
_


	9. Shot in the Dark

**A/N – I guess you didn't have to wait long, did you? :D I did stall a bit halfway through writing this but I'm happy with it. Enjoy, read, review and such or I'll bite your head off. Rawr. :3**

* * *

9. Shot in the Dark

Drake watched the long-eared man dodge easily out of the Metal Head's path, sending it careening into the stone wall and knocking a large chunk of it down. For half a second, it stopped and gave his mind a chance to let a thought cross his mind.

"What the hell are we doing?" he wondered aloud as the creature lumbered into motion once more.

"What are you talking about, Nate?" Elena asked urgently.

"Don't talk, just shoot!" he replied, pulling out his pistol, taking aim and firing several shots at the monster.

The blonde woman shook her head, wondering, much like her fortune-hunting friend, why she wasn't shooting before. The reason became apparent in an instant, as the rounds simply ricocheted off the thick armour plates, flying in unpredictable directions.

"Well, that worked!" Elena cried sarcastically at Drake.

"At least it didn't notice us!" he retorted.

"Hey, Rachel and Ross, hate to break it to you but I think it did," Sully cut in, pointing at the monster.

The Metal Head tilted its head towards the group, turning its attention away from Jak. It began pawing the ground roughly and lowered its head, skull gem glinting in the dim sunlight.

Jak saw the movements of the Metal Head and knew what was going to happen. He had to draw its attention away from the others before it charged. He ran through everything he'd done before, trying to think of a similar situation and how he'd managed to get out of it. The only thing that came to mind was when his father saved him from the Dark Makers in the Haven Stadium ruins. Unless someone intervened with a Slam Dozer (or Ram Rod as he heard some people call it) he had no hope of taking its attention without getting himself killed.

_Even if I did that, what then? It would turn back to the others and kill them too._

"We're going to have to move fast," Drake instructed the group. "But it's risky, 'cause we'll have to do it late, or it'll follow one of us right away,"

They all nodded as the beast let out another deafening roar, rearing up onto its hind legs and slamming back down to the floor with a massive force that left craters where its front feet landed. As soon as it touched down, it began to charge towards the gathered group at an incredible speed.

_I don't even have enough energy to Dark Bomb it. Shit, what am I going to do?_

The air shook around the clearing with the heavy report of a high calibre rifle. The layout of the surroundings made it difficult to tell where the sound had come from or where it had been aimed, but the sound was unmistakable. Even the beast slowed down at the noise. The three humans looked around to see if anyone had been hit, but there appeared to be no injuries. Drake looked back to the monster as the sound of another shot echoed around them, making its target intensely clear.

A violent purple plume exploded from the left side of the massive creature's head, spraying on to the rocks and ground. Its eyes widened and the Metal Head's skull gem fell to the floor with a light pop. The following sound of its bulk colliding with the ground was a stark contrast, making the ground shake one last time with the impact.

"What the hell…?" the treasure hunter wondered aloud.

His sentiments were mimicked by the rest of the group, all looking around to see who had killed the Metal Head and how. Jak hurried over to the others with a similar question in mind. The only answer given was with regards to the how.

"Fifty cal rifle, probably a Barrett. The rounds they fire can penetrate some serious armour," Sully explained. "The sound is pretty much unmistakable,"

A female voice announced her presence from the far side of the clearing. "Now that, Mister Sullivan, you are right about,"

"Well I'll be damned…" the old man said quietly.

"Looks like I've saved your arse once again Nate," she continued. The new arrival had black hair, tied back in a ponytail, crystal blue eyes and wore two strips of black paint on each cheek. She was clad in a short-sleeved green t-shirt and tan cargo pants and carried a heavy black rifle on her shoulder.

"Chloe, what the hell are you doing here?" Drake asked angrily.

"Well that's a fine way to welcome the woman who just saved you and your strange friends from a ravenous monster who, might I add, was about to make you into the world's sexiest shish-kebab,"

The man laughed. "You still know how to flatter a guy,"

"Anyway, I just happened to be passing through,"

"Oh no you didn't don't give me that crap Chloe, I know you better than that," Drake interrupted.

"Look, it doesn't matter. We need to get out of here; there have been some strange things going on,"

"Drake, what's going on? Who is this?" Jak demanded, startling Chloe.

"Oh, wow, you're a tall dark and handsome, aren't you?" she gasped.

"Jak, Daxter, Keira, Samos… this is Chloe Frazer. She's an old friend," he explained.

"Oh, just a friend? I'm crushed Nate,"

He ignored her and turned to Keira and Samos. "What have we got to do now?"

"Well, we've only got one more item to find so it shouldn't be too much of a problem," Keira replied, pulling out the locator. "The problem is, there are two more hits in the region and only one of them is the one we need,"

"Maybe we should split up then?" Jak suggested. "We can cover more ground that way,"

"That won't work, Jak," Samos said. "We only have one locator and while I could use my abilities to navigate, I would rather avoid another encounter like this," he gestured to the Metal Head corpse beside them.

"We've got another problem," Keira said worriedly. "According to the locator, we only have two hours until the gate back to our world closes,"

A short bout of silence passed between the already acquainted, not quite knowing what to say. Chloe, on the other hand had to speak up.

"I've got a million questions about what's happening here but I can tell we're a bit pressed for time, so why don't we just take my ride and we'll deal with it on the way,"

"'Your ride'? What do you mean 'your ride'?" Drake asked incredulously.

"Oh, just a little something some friends let me borrow," Chloe said, smiling. She pulled out a radio and clicked a button on the side, speaking into it. "Yes, we're ready, come pick us up."


	10. Vertical Velocity

**A/N - I thought I'd better get this up, since I've had a new reviewer. This one's for you, XPhoenix, good to have you reading too. To the rest of you, I hope this chapter will have been worth the wait. :)**

* * *

10. Vertical Velocity

The group, now consisting of equal parts Havener and Earthling, waited mere seconds before the sound of spinning rotor blades met their ears. It was a sound that all of them were familiar with. Jak's mind flashed back to when he first mounted Keira's A-Grav Zoomer all those years ago and wondered if the sound belonged to a vehicle of similar design. He soon saw that the source was closer to the now repurposed Krimzon Guard transports that he'd used as recently as the day before they had come to this world on one of his trips between Spargus and Haven.

"Chloe, how…" Drake began asking as a Chinook helicopter became visible above the tree line.

"A favour from a mutual friend. Sort of," she said casually, keeping her eyes transfixed on the twin-rotor transport.

"A mutual friend?" the bemused man repeated, failing to be heard over the increasingly loud sound the helicopter was making.

The Chinook span 90 degrees as it hovered over the clearing, its distinctive long body slotting between the trees easily, with space to spare. The rear hatch whirred mechanically open, but the rotor blades did not power down in the slightest. Chloe hopped in first and, following the green-shirted woman, the group embarked, the ramp closing as soon as the last person set foot inside. Along each side of the interior was an uncomfortable looking metal bench, with a large open floor space in between them. Towards the front was the door to the cockpit, into which Keira had already disappeared, fascinated by the flickering control panels.

Daxter had dismounted from Jak's shoulder and was standing, wide-eyed in front of Chloe, staring up at her chest.

"Is he always this blatant about staring at breasts?" she asked the blue-eyed elf.

"Yeah, pretty much," he replied. "It's best just to let him get it out of his system,"

"How did you find us?" Nate cut in.

"Ah, that would be telling, wouldn't it?" she said cheekily.

"I'm serious, Chloe. We haven't had contact with anyone outside of this chopper in about a week," he urged.

"Nate, calm down," Sully said, laying a hand on the man's shoulder. "I told her,"

"_What?_"

"What are you complaining about? She saved our asses, didn't she?"

Drake chose not to formulate a proper response, grumbling to himself instead.

The helicopter skimmed low and fast over the canopy of trees, rustling them violently with the draft from the rotors and shaking water free from the topmost leaves, sending it cascading down to the forest floor. The sun, barely above sunset, spread its gentle light on to the Chinook and the very tips of the forest's greenery, casting long shadows. Flocks of birds soared far in the distance, soaking up the day's final rays of sunshine. Seeing them from one of the craft's small circular windows, Jak reminisced about his own flying experiences; from the early days of the A-Grav Zoomer and leaping around on a Flut-Flut to piloting the Precursor Monk's glider and eventually using his own Light powers to take to the skies.

"You ain't the bird watching type," Daxter chirped, having reassumed his position on Jak's shoulder.

"Just thinking about home, buddy," Jak said absent-mindedly.

"Don't start getting mopey on me, Jakky boy. We'll see home again soon," the elf's best friend assured him.

Jak smiled. "Yeah."

The distinctive, slightly gravelly voice of Keira called out from the cockpit to the occupants in the rear. "We're nearing our destination. Let's hope we're headed towards the right place or we'll be cutting it awfully close."

None of them needed reminding how important it was they find the final artefact quickly.

The Chinook slowed down, hovering over a cluster of unusually coloured trees, buffeting them with the air stirred up by the rotor blades.

"We can't land, so we'll have to drop down on the rappelling ropes," Chloe said, unfastening some catches on the floor. "Take a pair of gloves, hold on and slide down to the ground,"

"If we can't land, what's this thing going to do?" Drake asked.

"He'll find a clearing and set down. At most he'll be ten minutes away," she replied, picking up her Barrett and handing it to Jak. "I think you might have a lot more use for this than me."

Jak felt the weight of the weapon in his hands, jammed it up against his shoulder and, satisfied with it, slung it across his back. He nodded his thanks and gripped onto the rope, allowing Daxter to hop on to his shoulder before sliding quickly down to the ground. He was followed by Drake, then Keira, after which Sully and Samos came down simultaneously, the latter on the former's back. As soon as Chloe hit the floor, the rope retracted back into the Chinook and it left swiftly.

They stood in a tightly packed cluster of thin trees, which swayed gently in the early evening breeze. Keira led the way with her locator, Jak striding alongside her like a 5 foot 10 bodyguard. Suddenly, the young woman stopped, causing her boyfriend to backtrack a couple of steps to realign with her.

"What's up?" the warrior asked.

"We're right on top of the artefact, but I can't see where it could be," Keira replied, glancing around.

The whole group gathered in the area, searching all around for any sign of the object. They kicked through leaves, broken branches, piles of dirt and various other substances that none of them wanted to know the origins of. After ten minutes of hard searching, they had all but given up on finding it.

"Y'know, it might help if we knew what it looked like," Nate said rather irritably.

"Judging by the readings I'm getting, it has to be a Power Cell, but it's been inactive for a long time," the mechanic said.

"Hate to break it to you, but we've never seen a Power Cell before," Chloe mentioned.

"They're spheres made of Precursor metal, with three insets. When inactive, these insets hover a short distance from the surface. It shouldn't be active, so it should be easy enough to spot," Samos explained.

"Oh," came the surprised voice of Elena. "You mean like that?" she pointed above them and sure enough, suspended by a net, was a glowing orange sphere.

"We weren't right on top of it, it was right on top of us!" Daxter shouted incredulously. Jak turned his head to look at the pants-clad Ottsel, raising an eyebrow. "What? What are you looking at me like that for?"

Jak simply raised his eyebrow even higher at his lifelong friend.

"Why do I have to go up there?"

"Aren't you always saying that you're the hero, Dax?" Keira said, smiling. "Now's your chance to prove it! You wouldn't want to disappoint the ladies now, would you?"

"Ah, Keira, I may be a spoken for Ottsel but you know my soft spot. Specifically for those two soft spots right there," he gestured to her chest and hopped down from Jak's shoulder, cracking his knuckles. "Alright, one Power Cell coming right up!"


	11. Steel Net

**A/N - I'm sorry this took so long. I've just been totally uninspired for the longest time and only recently started writing again, so I apologise profusely for the wait. I don't even have 2 chapters to make up for it. I do, however, know what's going to happen next, which is always good, so I'm looking forward to writing that. And I dropped a little present for someone in amongst this chapter, too, so keep an eye out for it. :D**

* * *

11. Steel Net

Daxter looked up at the net holding the Power Cell and traced its anchors within the trees, looking for the easiest way to get to the shining Precursor item. He narrowed it down to three trees that he could easily ascend before someone cleared their throat behind him. He didn't bother turning around to see who it was, shook his head lightly and picked a tree at random, scampering up the fractured bark with relative ease and disappearing above the lower canopy of leaves.

~^v^~

I burst through a cluster of leaves and landed deftly on a thick branch, not making any noise. I am, after all, the quietest thing on two furry was it dark up there, so I pulled my goggles down from my head and snapped them over my eyes.

_Alright, Dax, t__ime to get to work._

I surveyed the treetop surroundings, using my animal eyes combined with the extra low-light help of the goggles. I counted at least fifty Stinger Metal Heads. I've handled the Metal Bugs before, so I thought, _I can handle these things, no problem, especially since they're sleeping._

But just to be safe, I tried to avoid waking them up.

I moved carefully through the branches, like a ninja, hopping from one to another, making sure not to touch any that the sleeping Stingers sat on. Before long, one of the rope anchors of the net came into view. _Jackpot._ I sped up, forgetting about the sleeping Metal Heads and managed to shake every branch along the way. I got to the rope and stopped, noting a distinct rise in chittering noise behind me. Slowly, I turned my head around, seeing a mass of yellow skull gems glittering in the thin shafts of light coming through the trees.

I could take care of them on my own, no problem.

~^v^~

"WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The entire group looked up, breaking off their conversations in time to see a streak of orange fly across the upper surface of the net pursued by a crowd of yellow and grey creatures. Jak struggled to suppress a chuckle at his friend, eventually letting it out as a single, loud, "HA!"

The humans turned to him in surprise.

"Aren't you worried about him?" Drake asked.

"No, he can handle it," Jak replied with confidence. "Hey, Keira, remember the time he told us he brought down an army of Metal Bugs by himself?"

The young female chuckled. "Yeah, that was crazy. Some excuse for not finding you for two years,"

Jak shuddered visibly. His imprisonment under Baron Praxis had been the second most uncomfortable experience of his life. The first being when he finally told Keira how he felt about her, trapped in the snow in Haven Forest. He shook the feeling away and turned his head back to Daxter's attempts to avoid the Stingers.

"Jaaaak, help me!" Daxter cried, running on all fours as fast as his limbs would carry him.

The Ottsel was on his fifth crossing of the net now and he'd taken a few chances to look down through it to see that his friends were doing nothing to help his situation. He wished silently that Jak hadn't run out of yellow ammo for his Morph Gun, because he could really use the help of the Gyro Burster right about now.

Below, Jak heard the shout and realised that his friend wasn't just messing about any more.

"Chloe, how accurate is this thing?" he asked the black-haired woman quickly.

"Well that depends how steady your aim is, but I wouldn't fire it without setting it up first," she replied, a little hesitantly.

Jak grunted, ignoring the advice and holding the high calibre rifle to his shoulder, cocking his head to look through the scope. The images through the scope swayed around at the slightest movement of the man's supporting arm and he tried to remember what it was like to have to manually aim a weapon. His mind briefly flashed back to all those times he had to jump in turrets and blast Krimzon Guard, Metal Heads and Dark Makers to shreds. They were probably some of the most stressful moments of his past adventures.

He shook the negative thoughts from his mind, he refocused on his friend's trials above and took aim. He held his breath as he squeezed the trigger and let it out as soon as he felt the surprisingly large recoil kick against his shoulder. It was now obvious to him why Chloe had suggested setting the weapon up; it certainly would have hurt a normal person, but Jak's considerable training with the Wastelanders of Spargus helped, resulting in only a slight bruise.

The bullet exited the barrel, accompanied by a deafening sound, and flew upwards, not towards the chasing Stingers, but to one of the ropes supporting the net's corners. The effect of this was a downward slant in the net, but not enough to offer Dax a safe drop to the floor. One more shot would do it, so long as he could pull off another shot like the first.

"As soon as that net drops, kill those little bastards," Jak said to Drake and his friends.

"Ok, shoot Daxter, got it," Drake confirmed, receiving a smack on the back of the head from Elena. "Hey, I was joking!"

The tall elf took aim and fired again, using the same technique as before. The bullet flew up to the rope, slicing it in two. With a creak of the ropes taking on the strain, a section of net sailed down to within two feet of the ground. The Power Cell came tumbling down the newly formed slide, dropping to the floor and hovering just above it. Not even half a second after, a streak of orange followed it down, pursued by a miniature wave of Stinger Metal Heads.

"Now!" Jak shouted. The group of humans opened fire with their pistols, down to the last bullet, killing every single Stinger that dared appear. Within a minute, the floor was littered with yellow Skull Gems and the corpses of the Metal Heads.

"Next time, Jak, _you_ go up the tree," Daxter gasped between deep breaths.

Chuckling, Jak bent down and picked up the Power Cell, causing it to retract into itself and then handed it to Keira. "Well, that's us done," he said, turning back to the humans.

"Yeah, I guess so," Drake agreed. "Hey, Chloe, could you call in that chopper?"

"I already have, Nate. And a please wouldn't have gone amiss," she scolded.

"So, what do you say we get moving?" Sully said.

"You guys go, I'll be there in a sec. I've got one last thing to do here," Jak looked back to his own friends. "That means you too," he gave Keira a reassuring look and watched them leave.

Jak scanned around, making sure nobody was in sight and stood amidst the Stingers. One of the creatures alone wouldn't have had much Dark Eco, but the amount around him now would be more than enough to top him up should he need it. He was no clairvoyant – he certainly didn't want to take Onin's place, that was for sure – but he felt a storm coming.

* * *

**A/N - sometimes I surprise even myself with the amount of references I fit into a chapter. Read, review, favourite if you like it enough. I appreciate it and, hell, I'll even reply to the reviews too if I see fit! **


	12. The Fighting Chinook

**A/N – Hokay, I didn't expect to have this chapter done today. But hey, when I start writing, I get sh*t done! Actually really like this chapter for lots of reasons, which you'll discover when you read it :D**

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12. The Fighting Chinook

Jak sprinted through the trees, following the trail to the clearing where their lift would be landing. He'd spent a lot more time in the clump of trees where they'd found the Power Cell than he'd intended. Upon opening his eyes again, he'd seen Daxter, arms folded and foot tapping, waiting for him. Jak didn't mind; his friend had seen him absorb Eco hundreds of times before. The Ottsel had sped up to Jak's shoulder plate and held on tight at his friend's instruction. He dropped the gun and set off at a startling pace, crackling with Blue Eco.

It wasn't just Dark and Blue Eco he'd found though; he'd been able to absorb surprisingly large amounts of all types of Eco and stored an amount of each of them within his body. He'd sensed it as soon as they started searching for the Power Cell and since figured that the deposits were stationary, meaning they wouldn't call any Metal Heads if he absorbed them. He was sure that Samos had noticed the Eco too and that he wouldn't be surprised when Jak returned.

~^v^~

The group could hear the helicopter rotors turning as they approached the clearing, picking up speed as they burst through the trees. First was Nate, closely followed by Elena, Sully, Samos, Keira and finally Chloe. Drake was laughing with Elena at his own joke, one that Sully had heard too many times to count.

"Come on, let's get on and get out of here," Chloe said, moving past the others and putting a foot on the Chinook's rear ramp.

"Jak's not here yet," Keira protested, marching forwards. "And I'd rather stay here than leave him behind."

Chloe glanced inside the aircraft, then back to Keira. "I'm sorry," she said, pulling out her pistol and aiming it at the teal-haired young woman. "I need those artefacts. Now."

"Chloe, what the hell?" Drake called, moving forward as well, stopping as the woman turned her weapon to him.

"Don't come any closer Nate, I've got no choice,"

"I thought you were past this bullshit, Chloe!" he shouted. "I trusted you!"

"Your trust was misplaced, Drake," came a British voice from inside the helicopter. The owner of the voice stepped out, a heavy pistol in his hand.

"And who might you be?" he asked the man.

"You'll find out soon enough," the British man replied. "It is a shame that your young friend here won't give us the artefacts," he touched Keira's face, causing her to flinch away from the hand. "So I'm afraid we'll simply take her with us." He raised his gun and hit Keira sharply on the forehead with it, knocking her unconscious instantly.

The Brit signalled and two more men exited the Chinook and dragged Keira's body up the ramp.

~^v^~

The clearing came into view, and Jak saw the backs of almost the entire group. Nowhere could he see Keira, and everyone else was simply standing there, staring at the helicopter's rear ramp, where Chloe stood, a gun aimed at Drake. It took him no time at all to realise the situation and slowed down, circling around the clearing using the cover of the trees.

"Jak, what are you doing?" his companion asked.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm going to save Keira."

He could see that Chloe was accompanied by another large man and inside the aircraft, he could see Keira's unconscious form on the floor, flanked by a man with a gun and one man bent down next to her, looking through her bag. He could barely hear what was being said, but caught enough of the conversation to know he hadn't much time.

"Dax, stay here, tell Samos I'll have Keira back in no time," he said, crouching down and letting his friend drop to the floor.

"Okay, but don't you dare go home without me! I do not want to be trapped here with only Old Greenie for company," he said, folding his arms.

"Of course not, you wouldn't last a second without me, huh Dax?"

The pair punched their fists together and Jak stood up, concentrating. He pooled a cluster of Dark Eco inside and released it, turning himself completely invisible. He also added a drop of Blue Eco to give him an extra speed boost and dashed out from the cover of the trees and padded softly up the ramp, only a second before it began closing. He pushed himself into the far wall, glancing briefly down at Keira and seeing a trickle of blood roll down her perfect face. An unintentional shot of Dark Eco flew into his veins, prolonging his invisibility.

The ramp fully closed, with Chloe and the other man inside too and Jak felt the whole cabin lurch as the craft took off. He held back a primal growl – the last surge of Dark Eco had forced him to partially change into his Dark self – and dropped the invisibility. His eyes had gone black and his skin had started to turn the ashen grey it usually assumed, but the claws had not extended, nor had his hair changed; he had all the strength and speed of his Dark self with no danger of killing.

A swift punch to the back of the standing guard's head knocked him out and before the crouching guard could react, he'd received a boot to the chest, which took him out of commission for the moment. Chloe and the other man had looked up and pulled their weapons. Unlike Chloe, the man opened fire immediately, but his shots were negated as Jak dropped his Darkness and let the Light take over, putting up his Light Shield.

"You picked the wrong person's girlfriend to kidnap," he said calmly.

"Jak, I'm sorry, I had-" Chloe tried to explain.

"No excuses," he cut her off. "You made your choice."

He unleashed the last bit of Blue, pushing himself forwards and disarming both of the standing opponents with a single spinning kick, taking them both by surprise. Jak took the opportunity to channel some Red into his fist and lashed out with it at the man, hitting him square in the gut. The extra force provided by the Red Eco sent him flying backwards, hitting the switch to lower the ramp. He dropped to the floor, scrabbling for grip on something. His hands only found the leg of one of the seats as his legs slid down the ramp.

Now Jak turned his attention to Chloe, who had backed up away from the man.

"Jak, calm down, please, I had no idea he was going to-"

"I already told you, no excuses," he growled. "You're going to go into the cockpit, tell the pilot to make us hover, and then you and him are going to jump out."

The guard he had knocked the wind out of was only now getting up, but Jak saw him out of the corner of his eye and took two steps across the cabin, pushed some more Red into his fist and whacked him in the stomach. He flew backwards into the side door, which opened causing the guard to sail out of it, screaming.

Jak turned back to Chloe, eyes narrowed. She didn't need to be asked again. She turned, walked into the cockpit, and put on a parachute, handing the other one to the pilot and giving him the instructions. Jak felt the craft come to a hovering halt as the two exited the cockpit. He watched them both closely as one-by-one they jumped out.

A weapon fired behind him and Jak's heart skipped a beat. He looked down at his chest, making sure he'd not been hit and then down to Keira, a bullet lodged in the floor a millimetre above her head. He span around and jumped at the now standing man that had been with Chloe on the ground, knocking him to the floor. Jak landed atop him, holding his head over the edge of the ramp. He pulled a fist back and attacked the man again and again, until his nose was bleeding and broken and the rest of his face was battered and bruised.

The man laughed. "You are a fool…" he said, coughing. "You don't know the powers you're dealing with, you don't know who I work for."

"I don't care," Jak said, standing up.

"Your actions will do nothing to help you," he spluttered through the blood in his mouth.

Jak had heard enough. "You're pissing me off. And you tried to kill my girlfriend. People who do that tend to die."

The man began to stand up unsteadily. "Yes, I don't doubt that. We're not done with Drake." Without another word, he spread his arms and fell backwards off the ramp and out of the back of the craft.

Jak didn't give him another though and turned to Keira; she'd been unconscious the whole time. Bending down to her side, he brushed a lock of her hair aside and looked at the damage. A dark bruise had already appeared but the trickle of blood had stopped. He didn't want to, but he had to wake her up. He took her hand and channelled a small amount of Green Eco into her, feeling her fingertips warm up again.

"Keira?" he whispered. "Keira, I need you,"

Her eyelids fluttered open slowly, revealing her beautiful green irises, given more colour thanks to the Eco she had circulating inside her, repairing what damage it could.

"Jak? Where…?" she began.

"You're safe, that's all that matters. I need your help though," he said.

"Whatever you need, Jak," she smiled, gripping his hand tightly as he leaned in to kiss her.

"We need to get back to the others, do you think we can fly this thing back to them?" he asked.

"Say no more, just help me up and we'll get going."


	13. Final Frame

**A/N - And so we come to the end. I may do an epilogue, as to what happens after the Haven gang leave Earth, and what Drake and co. do, but for now, I think this is it. As ever, read/review etc. I can't threaten with no next chapter, but I appreciate it all the same.**

* * *

13. Final Frame

"What are we supposed to do then?" Elena asked nobody in particular.

The Chinook had left around ten minutes ago now, and left the others on the ground, once again, with no idea whose side Chloe was on. What was worse, they hadn't seen Jak or Daxter since they started on their way to the chopper.

As if on cue, a streak of orange flew out from the trees towards the group.

"Daxter, I never thought I'd actually be happy to see you!" exclaimed Samos, hopping up from the floor with such speed that the bird perched on his hair log fluttered about for a moment.

"Well if you're happy now, just wait until you hear what I've got to tell you!" the Ottsel proclaimed loudly. "Long story short, our boy Jak is off rescuing Keira, once again," and he went on to describe what had happened to him and Jak since the others had left them.

~^v^~

It took no time at all for Keira to familiarise herself with the control system of the flying machine. Within seconds, she had grasped basic manoeuvring of the vehicle and in less than a minute, she'd figured out what the majority of the buttons, switches and dials meant. Jak wasn't surprised, but he still never failed to be impressed by his girlfriend's ability to adapt to any kind of machinery. Samos was right: she was much like her mother in that regard.

He sat in the co-pilot seat, watching the girl as she fiddled with a few different switches on the control panel before they lurched into motion. He knew better than to disturb her while she worked on whatever piece of technology she had her hands on. Silently, he remembered peeking at her through her curtain while she worked late one night on what looked like a Zoomer that could seat three people; or two normal sized people and one small person. He smiled to himself, snapping out when Keira spoke.

"Thank you," her voice was strangely quiet, and there was a slight unsteadiness that the hero was not used to hearing.

Jak did not reply verbally. He simply took hold of Keira's hand, lacing his fingers with hers and smiling. She looked over to him and that was enough. She nodded and turned back to look through the windscreen.

"We should be back with the others in a few minutes," she said. Jak didn't ask how she knew which way they needed to go, but was simply thankful that she did.

The journey back was thankfully far less eventful than the outward journey.

~O~

Daxter finished his fantastical yarn with as many enthralled listeners as he'd begun with; zero. But with his finale came first the sound of spinning rotor blades, then a gust of wind and the roar of twin engines as the Chinook came into view over the clearing. It rotated, presenting the rear hatch to those on the ground and all wheels touched the ground simultaneously. Seconds later, Nate, Elena, Sully, Samos and Daxter were gathered around, waiting for the back end to open.

They waited patiently, staring intently at the ramp, anticipating its movement. Daxter even hopped up and down a few times in excitement. Yet nothing happened. A throaty cough from behind made them all jump in surprise and they turned around to see Jak and Keira standing side-by-side, each with an arm wrapped around the waist of the other.

Calls of "Jak!" and "Keira!" were heard simultaneously, each one resonating with joy at their safe return. Daxter bounded forward first, scampering up Jak's arm as he bent down to greet his friend.

"I knew you could pull off that plan of mine, big guy," he said from Jak's shoulder.

"_Your_ plan?" Jak asked, simultaneously wondering why he was surprised at Daxter's fib.

"Of course, you can't do _anything_ without my help, even when you're on your own!"

The hero chuckled as Keira shifted her arm to grip Jak's own arm, pulling lightly on it. Feeling the tug, he turned his gaze upon her and nodded.

"We should get moving," the elfin warrior said.

"Jak is correct," Samos agreed. "We have until sunset to get back through the Precursor Ring or we'll be trapped here for who knows how long,"

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Daxter scurried down from Jak's shoulder and into the waiting transport. Without another moment's hesitation, the rest of the group followed, Keira heading straight for the cockpit, while the others sat in the rear.

Fifteen minutes later, and with the last beams of light fading quickly from view, the Chinook landed just outside the ruins of the temple surrounding the Precursor Rift Ring. Keira unbuckled herself and double-checked that she still had the bag with all the Precursor items they'd need for the Rift Rider. Verifying its contents,she pressed a button on the control panel and set the ramp to lower before exiting the cockpit.

While Keira worked on fixing the Rider, the others said their goodbyes. Daxter engaged Elena is a surprisingly tame conversation and the aged men exchanged wisdom with one another. This left Jak and Drake in an awkward position.

"So..." Drake began.

"Yeah," Jak agreed.

The conversation, if it could be called that, persisted with a silence, broken only by the clatter of Keira's tools on Precursor metal.

"Listen-"

"Hey-"

Both spoke at the same time, stopping as soon as they heard the other begin and fell into a few more seconds of muteness that Jak had long since left behind. In fact, suddenly feeling he had a lot of lost speaking time to make up for, the green-tinted blonde started speaking again.

"You're not as bad as I thought," he said, shortly.

Nate was taken back momentarily before composing himself enough to reply.

"Yeah, you're not half bad yourself," the man replied.

Nothing more needed to be said; neither were men of words. They fixed one another with a tense gaze for a few seconds, before the human offered his hand to the elf. Jak gripped Nate's outstretched digits, giving it a firm shake. The pair nodded and broke the connection, each with the tiniest of smiles on their faces.

"We're just about ready to go, and not a moment too soon!" Keira proclaimed, depositing the last of her tools into her bag.

Daxter dived in first, taking the centre seat, while Samos hopped on to the far side. Keira took seat next to Daxter, with Jak to her other side.

"Thanks for your help!" the mechanic called.

"Be safe, young ones," her father added.

"Call me!" Daxter shouted, winking at Elena.

"See you around," Jak said, hitting the button on the console.

The Rift Rider shot forwards, straight through the active Rift Ring, its pearlescent surface shimmering as the craft faded into the fluctuating warp.

"Do you think we'll see them again?" Elena asked, leaning on Nate's arm.

The fortune hunter chuckled. "Maybe, if we're really unlucky."

* * *

**A/N - So, that's it. Thanks for reading, it's been fun to write. I'll see you all next time... which could be a while, as I've started university now, so I will have even less time to do anything like this. But thank you, really, I mean it. :)**


	14. Epilogue

**A/N – Okay, I lied. One last chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

**14. Epilogue**

The Rift Rider emerged from the other side of the Precursor Ring into familiar territory for the elfin and ottsel passengers. The vehicle slammed into the floor, skidding for a short distance before slowing against the barrier Keira had erected in anticipation for their return. It squashed and deformed to the shape of the Rift Rider's front bumper, holding it in place as the occupants disembarked.

Daxter gave a stretch that could only be considered huge if one were two feet tall and fuzzy. "Ahhh, home sweet home!" He inhaled deeply of the air, gagging seconds later. "Could live without the smell though. Didn't miss that."

Samos hopped down on his side, bent his back a little and levitated himself to see Jak and Keira on the other side. "Keira, could you take me home please? I'm not quite as young as I used to be and I certainly wasn't built for that sort of adventure," he said, gently massaging his back with his free hand.

"Dad? What are you doing here so late?" called Keira's voice.

It wasn't coming from the woman stood next to Jak.

All eyes, including Keira's, turned to the source of the voice. Standing in the doorway was a silhouette of a woman familiar to them all. Another distinct, instantly recognisable voice came from behind her.

"The Zoomer's ready and waiting outside. Who are you talking to?" it asked.

"Oh my..." Samos said, voice shaking a little.

Jak, Keira, Daxter and Samos all stared at the people as they entered the light of the garage, hardly daring to believe what they saw.

The other Jak and Keira were similarly bemused.

~O~

Nate, Elena and Sully watched the Precursor Ring shut down a few seconds after the Rift Rider disappeared into the swirling void. The previous covering of orange metal slid closed and the Power Cells that covered its surface, glowing only seconds before, now sat inactive in their alcoves.

"Well, I'm glad that's over," Sully said, pulling out a cigar and lighting it.

"Yeah," Elena agreed. "You and me both." She slid her back down a wall, resting on the ground. Sully opted to sit on one of the scattered fallen pillars and smoke.

As his two companions rested, Nate continued to stare at the now silent Rift Ring. Ignoring them for now, he approached it, as he had done before the Haveners had arrived, running his hands over the lowermost orbs, feeling the cold, smooth metal beneath his fingers. He gripped one, finding purchase around the edge of the usually levitating mounds and pulled. It came free surprisingly easily, causing the treasure hunter to slip backwards and drop the Power Cell down the stairs behind him. It bounced once, twice, three times, each with a loud metallic clang, before making soft contact with the dirt floor.

"Nate, what are you up to?" Elena called, exhaustedly.

The aforementioned man groaned and stood up, massaging his rear end where he'd landed on it, and proceeded down the stairs after the ball.

"Like a kid with a toy," Sully noted with a chuckle.

As Drake bent down to examine the object, he caught sight of his reflection and briefly checked his hair. _Looking__good._ He stretched out a hand and picked it up carefully, immediately noticing a difference; it was warm to the touch, and getting warmer. It began to glow, softly at first but quickly building up. He pulled his hand away quickly before the three mounds sprang out, levitating the orb a foot and a half from the ground.

"Well I'll be..." he whispered.

"Yes, fascinating isn't it?" came an unfamiliar voice from behind them.

Nate wheeled around to the source of the voice. It was a deep, gruff voice, with a small hint of a mechanical whirr to it. Its owner was as imposing to look at as the voice was to hear. It looked like a man, only he was covered with red painted metal plates. Over his broad shoulders hung a crimson cloak and at his side, a blade as long as his arm.

"And you are?" Drake asked.

The man laughed darkly. "I am Praxis," he said, coolly. He gestured lightly and another, similarly garbed man stepped out from his shadow. This man's face was dark, gaunt, and half covered with orange locks of hair. The other half was a skull of shining metal, a red skull emblazoned upon its surface. "And this is my... _friend_." The word sounded forced and meaningless. However, the 'friend' put a metal hand to his metal chest-plate and bowed his head slightly.

"My name is Erol. A pleasure to meet you all."

* * *

**Haha! Ok, now it's REALLY finished. Until I decide to do a sequel, that is ;D **

**~Marn**


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